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Australian nun ordered to leave Philippines by 3rd November

Thursday, 1st November 2018

Philippine authorities said an Australian missionary woman religious must leave the country by 3rd November.

Sr Patricia Fox, Philippine superior of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, had sought for six months to overturn repeated government decisions to deport her after she was accused of participating in partisan political activities.

The Bureau of Immigration announced on 26th October that it had downgraded Sr Patricia’s missionary visa to a temporary visitor’s visa that expires on 3rd November, ucanews.com reported.

Sr Patricia was allowed to stay in Manila as a tourist pending a ruling on a second appeal to the Department of Justice. The immigration bureau order, however, requires her to leave the country even though her appeal remains under consideration.

“Under the circumstances she is compelled to leave under strong protest,” said attorney Katherine Panguban of the National Union of People’s Lawyers.

“Sr Fox will leave the Philippines with a clear conscience that she has done nothing wrong and illegal during her 27 years of stay in the country,” Panguban said.

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Picture: Sr Patricia Fox, superior of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in the Philippines, smiles during a late-May news conference in Manila. (CNS photo/Dondi Tawatao, Reuters).